East Timor Judges Fail Their Test

Built from scratch like so much of East Timor after the militia rampages in the wake of 1999's independence vote, the nation's justice system is now facing a critical setback. All 22 of its Timorese judges, some of whom have been presiding over prosecutions for crimes against humanity in the Special Panels for Serious Crimes, have failed their probationary evaluation and are no longer qualified to hear cases. "People ask me, How about those people who have been sent to jail already?" says Carmelita Moniz, who has ruled on hundreds of civil and criminal cases since being appointed in 2000, "and...